Crypto billionaires up 60% in one year: Who made Forbes' annual list?

The Forbes Crypto Billionaires list has been updated, with a huge increase in the number of individuals who have achieved enormous wealth through digital assets.

There are now 19 billionaires on the crypto elite list, seven more than last year, and the list expanded by 58%. Forbes released the latest crypto rich list on April 5, but the top spot has not changed.

Binance CEO and founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) remains the richest person in the industry, currently ranking 19th on the global rich list due to his relatively short wealth accumulation. Forbes has downgraded CZ's fortune to a current estimate of $65 billion from an estimated $96 billion last year. However, that still makes him the wealthiest man in the business.

FTX founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried follows CZ with an estimated net worth of up to $24 billion. He has been dubbed the "Crypto Robin Hood" for his repeated statements that he wants to give away the bulk of his fortune. But with $24 billion still on hand, he apparently hasn't been able to do that yet.

Coinbase CEO and founder Brian Armstrong ranks third with $6.6 billion. Ripple's Chris Larsen and Gemini's Winklevoss brothers are still on the list, both worth about $4 billion.

New crypto billionaires on the list include FTX co-founder and CTO Gary Wang, who holds a 16% stake in FTX and has a net worth of $5.6 billion. and Nikil Viswanathan and Joseph Lau, co-founders of blockchain and Web3 company Alchemy. The duo's net worth is reported to be $2.4 billion each, placing them at No. 11.

OpenSea NFT marketplace co-founders Devin Finzer and Alex Atallah are also new to this year's crypto rich list, with an estimated net worth of $2.2 billion each.

The list is joined by several other high-profile individuals, including South Korean Upbit exchange founder Song Chi-hyung, who is reportedly worth $3.7 billion. Kim Hyoung-nyon, executive vice president of Dunamu in South Korea, owns an estimated 13% stake in Upbit, giving it a net worth of $1.9 billion.

MicroStrategy's Michael Saylor remains a billionaire in the crypto space with an estimated net worth of $1.6 billion. The company’s stock price has quadrupled over the past two years after its big bet on bitcoin paid off.

Forbes originally released its first crypto elite list in 2018, when only a handful of executives made the list. Back then, the threshold was much lower, with a wealth figure of $350 million to make the list.

Cointelegraph Chinese is a blockchain news information platform, and the information provided only represents the author's personal opinion, has nothing to do with the position of the Cointelegraph Chinese platform, and does not constitute any investment and financial advice. Readers are requested to establish correct currency concepts and investment concepts, and earnestly raise risk awareness.